New Zealander Danny Lee finally gets the chance to defend his 2015 Greenbrier Classic after last year’s tournament was canceled due to devastating floods.

Greenbrier is essentially presented as new following the destruction from 2016 and also presents the opportunity for the field to seal a spot in The Open later this month.

Defending Champion Lee enters the tournament with solid form under his belt with three top-10’s and T22 last week at Quicken Loans.

He claimed his first victory on the PGA TOUR after outlasting David Hearn, Kevin Kisner and Robert Streb.

Lee will need to hold off an Aussie contingent including Curtis Luck, buoyed by a brilliant top five finish at the Quicken Loans National Curtis Luck among eight Australians to tee up at this week’s Greenbrier Classic.

Luck earned his spot in the field courtesy of his top-10 finish last week but with just five full field events left before the end of the season he needs to maintain that pace if he is to achieve his goal.

To bypass a year on the secondary Web.com Tour Luck first needs to achieve Special Temporary Membership of the Tour then play his way into the top-125 in FedEx Cup points before the Wyndham Championship in August.

A further 207 FedEx Cup points are required to achieve the first goal then likely another 150 or so after that to become a card carrying member of the Tour in 2018.

It’s a tall order for the 20-year-old from Western Australia but with nothing to lose and everything to gain, The Greenbrier tournament could be a pivotal point in his career.

Luck has already proved he has the game to contend at the top level and if he can finish outright second this week he would be well on his way to securing playing privileges for 2018. A win of course, would take care of everything.

Luck isn’t the only Australian playing for high stakes at White Sulphur Springs with Matt Jones, Cameron Percy and Geoff Ogilvy all in need of a good result.

Jones and Percy are just outside the top 125 who will be guaranteed a card next year while Ogilvy’s T13 last week has given him a little bit of breathing space having moved to 105^th.

History suggests the Victorian will need somewhere in the region of a further 120 points to secure a card and anything in the top five this week would likely be enough.

The 2006 U.S. Open champion is playing this event for the first time in his career but having shown increasingly good form in recent weeks it would be no surprise to see him in the mix come Sunday.

Sydney’s Matt Jones has already contended at this event once before finishing T2 in his last outing here in 2013.

The 2015 Australian Open champion is currently 132^nd on the FedEx Cup standings but showed decent form last week at TPC Potomac on his way to a mid-field finish and will be keen to keep that roll going.

Percy is 12 spots behind Jones in the FedEx Cup and will need some of his best golf of the year in the coming weeks if he is to get back to the TOUR.

The South Australian will be looking to improve on a previous best of T30 in four appearances here, that result coming in 2013.

Also teeing up this week are former winner Stuart Appleby, Steven Bowditch, Brett Drewitt and Greg Chalmers.

Appleby’s relationship with the Old White course has been a tumultuous one, his history making 59 to win in his first appearance in 2010 also the last time he broke 70.

He has missed the cut in four outings since and comes into the week following a missed cut on the Web.com Tour.

Steven Bowditch returns to the TOUR after an almost month long break and while it has been another horror season for the Queenslander this is a venue where he has played well previously.

In five tries he has missed the cut only once and was T2 in 2013 alongside Matt Jones.

Brett Drewitt makes his debut at the tournament while Greg Chalmers has never been comfortable at the course with four missed cuts in six tries.